Tips For Your First Plumbing Job
If you’ve decided to become a plumber, you are in for an exciting industry full of learning, growing, and doing. Professional plumbers know these tips, but you should too!
Figuring this information out before your first plumbing job is sure to impress your new boss as well as earn return business from the customer. Keep reading for more information!
Customers Need Honesty
You probably know the feeling of when you’re being lied to. You’re not the only one, customers can sense it too. If they can’t sense it, they’ll eventually figure out any dishonesty that has occurred.
Once this happens, you will lose business and any potential referrals. Customer service is being honest. Another way to show your customers that you care and are dedicated to service is by owning up to any potential mistakes.
It’s common to minimize or negate a mistake as though it didn’t happen. However, this is a mistake and it goes back to honesty. Stand behind your work, own up to whatever the mistake is, and fix it. Respecting customers’ time is another way to give great service.
When you are on time, you show that you respect them and their time. If you can’t arrive on time, give them a call to let the customer know when you will be there. This tip is about honesty, too--as well as communication.
Safety Matters
When you are working on a plumbing job, things can potentially go wrong. In order to mitigate the chances of you being harmed, personal protection equipment (PPE) is required.
PPE can consist of gloves, eyewear, hard hats, back braces, and respirators. Gloves and protective eyewear might be obvious, hard hats used at construction sites, and back braces are used to protect your back when lifting heavy items.
However, respirators are often underused. Respirators can save your lungs, heart, blood--basically anything that helps carry air to your cells--from the toxic fumes of sewage or natural gas.
Learning Everyday
If you enjoy learning something new every day, you’ll enjoy the vast amount of knowledge that can be gleaned from this industry.
Plumbers must possess the ability to accurately perform math, and have the physical abilities to lift heavy items and hold pipes steady.
Aside from this, critical thinking is a must. Problem-solving can be done in a variety of ways such as using your cell phone to see into inaccessible areas or take photos of walls before they’re sealed off. Other ideas that have worked well for plumbers include cutting a pipe with a string.
This can be done by cutting a notch in the pipe with a knife and then using a string as a saw. The string cutting the pipe won’t make for a super accurate or even cut, but it will get the job done when your saw won’t fit.
Finally, a skill that is often learned on the job is plunging the sink before removing the trap. This is done to move the water out of the trap to prevent a huge mess. If you keep these tips and tricks in mind when on the job, you’ll be able to quickly move to the top of your field, and do so safely!
